DRONES

Kitty Hawk, Round Two

A brand new zipline is coming to the U.S., but it won’t lead to any summer camper wedgies or tourist accidents. California-based Zipline, which claims to operate the world's largest autonomous drone delivery network, is deploying its tech in North Carolina.

Today, Novant Health announced it's launching an FAA-approved “emergency drone logistics operation” that will deliver medical supplies to the Charlotte, NC metro area. Zipline will be contributing the flying robot services.

“Once the pandemic hit, it changed everything for us,” Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo told the Brew. After scaling Zipline’s services in Rwanda and Ghana, “We asked: ‘What more can we do to help other countries prepare for and respond to COVID-19?’ which led to the effort now being launched in America.”

First in flight

At a national level, today’s announcement marks the first time the FAA has approved long-range drone logistics flights. Novant Health’s operation is also the first to be cleared for Class D airspace, where the FAA actively manages all air traffic. 

At a Tar Heel level, this is “First in Flight” all over again. The Wright brothers launched the first non-drone from Kitty Hawk, NC. Now, North Carolina has made itself a launching pad for commercial drones, just like Arizona emerged as a lab for self-driving cars. Novant Health’s operation will launch as part of NC’s Department of Transportation’s drone integration pilot program.

The actual logistics

Zipline

Zipline’s drones will transfer PPE and critical medical supplies from a medical fulfillment center to a health facility. Round trip, the flights will be 20–30 miles. Current U.S. commercial drone operations range from a few hundred feet to a couple miles max. 

• Zipline’s drones have a total range of 100+ miles, which could allow them to reach 30 additional Novant Health facilities (with FAA approval). 

Down the road, drones could deliver additional types of key medical cargo: tests, drug trials, and vaccines. In the next couple years, Zipline and Novant Health plan to transition from emergency operations to regular commercial services, scale coverage to additional health centers, and eventually, serve all NC households.

Asked if there’s more in store for Zipline, Rinaudo said: “Yes. We're ready to expand across the United States and the world.”

PUBLIC HEALTH

Tracking the Tracers

Apple and Google are developing privacy-preserving tools that could become the lingua franca of contact tracing. Most existing alternatives face headwinds that limit their helpfulness for health authorities.

Adoption: Most voluntary national apps have penetration rates well below 40%, according to MIT Tech Review, meaning downloads are short of the critical mass needed to make the technology effective. 

Security: Qatar’s mandatory contact tracing app had a vulnerability that could’ve exposed the personal information of over 1 million citizens, per Amnesty International. Qatari authorities quickly patched the flaw. 

Privacy: Chinese government officials are scheming to keep monitoring software on citizens’ phones indefinitely, which faces backlash from some social media users. In Hangzhou, officials have proposed a permanent health scoring system that would track sleep, alcohol use, and more. 

Bottom line: The Apple/Google system could address these problems. Even so, software isn’t a silver bullet for contact tracing, which requires an army of human helpers.

+ While we’re here: European startups are racing to repurpose identification and authentication systems as digital immunity tech, the FT reports.

SPONSORED BY NOWRX

The Disruption Clock Is Ticking

Turns out the chance to become an industry disruptor has a deadline. There are now less than thirty days to invest in the on-demand medication delivery company that is revolutionizing the $330 billion retail pharmacy industry.

June 19th is last-call to invest in NowRx, the retail pharmacy startup using robotics, innovative software, and AI to deliver prescriptions to users the same day they’re filled—for free. 

Thirty-ish days may seem like a long time, but with all our days feeling like one, long working from home blur recently, we aren’t sure we could tell you the difference between 30 days and 30 minutes.

With that in mind, it’s best to join the 5,000+ investors from around the world that have already invested in NowRx.

Be punctual and disrupt the pharmaceutical industry today.

VR

Spaced Out

Former HTC CEO Peter Chou has a new gig: trying to build the metaverse. Yesterday, Chou’s startup XRSpace unveiled what it’s been working on for the last three years: 

• Mova, a $599 VR headset that supports hand tracking and 3D scanning. Mova has a 5G-compatible model, making it the first VR headset to connect to next-gen cellular networks. 
• Manova, a social VR platform with private and public spaces to access services, play games, and flail your arms. In Manova, players sport full-body virtual avatars. In most social VR apps, like Facebook’s forthcoming Horizons, avatars don’t have legs. 

Taiwan-based XRSpace is focused on securing strategic partnerships. In Q3, Mova will first launch the headset in Taiwan with Chunghwa Telecom, then in Germany with Deutsche Telekom. XRSpace has also teamed up with a Taiwanese real estate company to use its technology for VR home tours.

Zoom out: Chou knows that breaking into hardware is hard. Building a social VR world that finds mainstream success may be even harder. 

+ For more on 5G and VR, check out our 5G guide.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Three years ago, Facebook leadership reviewed internal research concluding the company’s feed-ranking algorithms increased divisiveness and polarization. The company declined to act decisively on the findings, the WSJ reports. 

Quote: “Oopsie. We did a propaganda.”—FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, reacting to news that YouTube is automatically deleting comments critical of the Chinese Communist Party. 

Watch: SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission to the ISS, the first crewed space launch by a private company, will be all systems go for 4:30pm ET (SpaceX stream / NASA stream). If you’re in northern Europe, you may even be able to see the rocket pass overhead...please send me a video if you do.

SPONSORED BY WEWORK

The workplace is taking on new meaning. Nothing can replace human connection and face-to-face collaboration, but coming together will look very different. WeWork understands this, and is at the forefront of creating a better, safer place for teams to gather. They’re reimagining their spaces with increased sanitization, modified seating for more physical distance, and friendly wayfinding reminders to help make the future of work safe. Learn more .

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Amazon is in talks to acquire self-driving startup Zoox, the WSJ reports. 
• Apple is reopening approximately 100 more U.S. stores this week, with an emphasis on curbside service. 
• Cruise layoffs hit the engineering org harder than the self-driving company let on, Bloomberg reports. 
• Palantir expects to IPO within the next year, CEO Alex Karp told Axios.
• In the U.S., the Department of Homeland Security is preparing for attacks on 5G towers following conspiracy-fueled incidents across Europe. 
• British PM Boris Johnson plans to phase out Huawei equipment from U.K. 5G networks after deciding to allow it in non-core parts. More on what that means .
• Facebook’s Libra project rebranded its Calibra digital wallet as Novi.

TRIVIA

Louder than a lawnblower, lighter than a helicopter. Love ’em or hate ’em, they took off around the world during lockdown. 

Today’s trivia theme is drones—put your knowledge to the test. 

TECH THINGAMABOBS

For product designers: Computer Scientist Ben Shneiderman persuasively argues in the NYT that we should remake human-machine interaction to be more collaborative. 

For the future of health: Stat News lays out nine scenarios for the future of the U.S. healthcare system. 

For futuristic images: The Daily Sci-Fi Art Instagram account posts wallpaper-worthy graphics of futuristic cityscapes, characters, and space shots.